On tonight’s Craft Wars, three competitors faced off for a $10,000 prize. The competitors included a sculptor from Washington, D.C., a prop builder from California, and a painter from Chicago.

Pop Craft Round

In the first round, the three contestants were given one hour to create two pieces of wearable jewelry. To make these pieces, they would have to use audio equipment, along with items from the wood and arts/crafts supply closet.

The sculptor chose to create a butterfly necklace and an owl broach. The eyes of the owl were made from earphones, and the butterfly center from ear buds. She further embellished her jewelry with beads and a little bling. When facing the judges, she was praised for her creativity and cohesiveness in design, but criticized for having sloppy work.

The prop builder used three earphones to first create the shape of a heart. He then covered them with headphone jacks and beads which was extremely attractive. Further, he created a matching bracelet. Although the judges were thrilled with his design, they complained that glue gobs could be seen on his bracelet.

The Chicago painter used ribbon for a necklace and headphones to make a charm. She planned to use copper tubing in her design but had to change direction when she had trouble cutting it. With limited time remaining, she was struggling to come up with another plan. When visited by the host Tori Spelling, she expressed concern that there were too many materials from the crafts closet used and not enough from the challenge items. Her final project was a necklace made of ribbon and chains with a charm that was one big headphone. She also used the inside of a boom box to make a bracelet of chains and wires. As Tori had warned, the judges thought she used too much from the crafts closet and not enough from the challenge materials. Consequently, she was sent home.

Final or Master Round

The master round would hugely challenge the remaining two contestants. In addition to the $10,000 prize, the winner of this challenge would have the privilege of having their art displayed in the Grammy Museum. The challenge: create a sculpture out of musical instruments and metal. To aid in completing the project, they were given a carpenter and added assistants. As in the previous round, they could also use items from the wood and/or crafts closet.

From the beginning, the sculptor seemed to have an advantage. Nonetheless, the prop builders architectural skills would prove beneficial. The prop builder chose to spray paint all of his musical instruments gold for unity. He would also use lots of duct tape to make a Grammy award sculpture, and would torch the duct tape for a really interesting or lava-looking piece. Unfortunately, the sculpture began to melt and lose shape with each torching. Therefore, after torching, he needed to reinforce the structure. Lastly he spray painted the entire sculpture gold, added gold nails and screws, and placed the musical instruments inside the Grammy box. The sculptor opted to create a snake. The body was made of metal cans and was planned to have scales made of vinyl. Tori, however, thought the scales took away from the heavy metal look, so the sculptor changed her mind and chose to go with denim instead. With just one hour remaining, she was just finishing the head of her snake. She also needed to finish the tail which was made of metal tea kettles. The fangs were made of knitting needles, and a smashed guitar placed in his mouth. Lastly, she would use the vinyl scales to create a habitat for her snake and covered it in dark glitter.

The judges praised the sculptor for working with the denim in lieu of vinyl, but hated the use of glitter in a natural habitat. They said they would have preferred she leave the snake more plain, quoting, “less is sometimes more.” With the prop builder, the judges were extremely impressed with his torching technique. His use of gold nails and screws was thought by one of the judges to be a little too much.

After much discussion, the judges unanimously agreed to make the prop builder the winner of tonight’s Craft Wars.

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